On Main Street in downtown Anaconda, this 1930s era post office is at number 218. It is still in use and probably will remain so for many more years.
Anaconda Post Office
Starved Classicism (1930-1942)
Also referred to as PWA Moderne by some writers, this was the
dominant mode of government construction during the 1930s and
it is a direct descendant of the Supervising Architect's
earlier Beaux-Arts-inspired buildings. The façade and plan of
these buildings remain symmetrical; the primary shift is in the
ornament. Starved Classicism, in an effort to reduce costs and
speed construction eliminated or reduced ornament to a minimum.
The ornament that was used often owed a stylistic debt to the
Art Deco of the twenties.
The term starved classicism was used by Louis Craig, Director of
the Federal Architecture Project for the National Endowment of
the Arts, in describing the "modern" architectural style that
was derived from the Classical but stripped and simplified to
provide, in her terms: "... a gaunt, underfed, 'starved'
classicism, denoted as much by white masonry and the rhythm of
wall and window as by vestigial columns".
The Livingston and Billings post offices were completed in 1914.
Miles City Post Office was completed in 1916, and the last
post office completed in Montana prior to the 1930s opened its
doors in Kalispell in 1918. Montana's major cities now had
federal buildings. Only Anaconda, Marcus Daly's copper
smelting center, and Montana's fifth largest city, had been bypassed.
Anaconda, along with the booming agricultural centers of Havre
and Lewistown, would have to wait until the 1930s before receiving
their federal gifts.
Anaconda, which had been omitted from the public building
programs of the pre-1920s, was the next Montana city to receive a
federal building. The possibility of a federally constructed
post office had been first considered in 1914, and in 1915
Representative John M. Evans (D) introduced a bill in Congress
providing for a $125,000 federal building in Anaconda. However,
no appropriation was made and several years of lobbying by
Anaconda civic groups ensued. House Document 613 of the 70th
Congress (February 26, 1929) finally authorized $95,000 for a post office in Anaconda pursuant to the expanded Public Buildings Act
of 1926. House Document 788 (February 27 ,1931) authorized
and appropriated $140,000 for the Anaconda building under the
public Works Emergency Appropriation of February 10, 1931.
Construction commenced in 1932 and the building was completed in
January 1933.
These three post offices, Lewistown, Havre and Anaconda are
characteristic of those post offices constructed during the
late 1920s early 1930s. They are transitional in federal design
style in that they represent a stage in the evolution from the
Beaux-Arts Classicism (Renaissance Revival and Neo-Classicism)
of the first two decades of the century to the International
style which began to influence American design in the 1920s.
Although these buildings are of modern influence, they retain
identifiable historical architectural elements and are not
stripped to the degree of post offices which followed in the
mid to late 1930s. The later buildings reflected the urgent
response to the national economic emergency, which dictated a
greater degrees of standardization and simplification,
particularly of facades (since interior design had long since been
standardized).
Both the Havre and Anaconda post offices are clearly Beaux-Arts inspired in their Neo-Classical designs. Both have relatively flat facades, but also retain Classical architectural detailing. The Anaconda Post Office also makes use of the Greek form in its colossal fluted columns with Ionic capitals which front the recessed entry portico.
From the National Register Nomination Form